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The Soviet space plane that could spy, bomb, and dogfight from orbit

Deep in the Cold War, the Soviet Union quietly developed a classified orbital warplane capable of reconnaissance, bombing, ...

Abdul Ahad Momand, Only Afghan to Fly in Space, Is Dead

A pilot in the Afghan Air Force, he was recruited for the Soviet space program. His 1988 flight took place as the Soviets ...
The New York Times

Soviet Spacecraft Crash Lands on Earth After a Journey of Half a Century

Kosmos-482, a spacecraft bound for Venus in 1972, was a time capsule from the Cold War when superpowers had broad ambitions for exploring the solar system. A cutaway diagram of the Venera 8 landing ...
Smithsonian Magazine

How the U.S. and the Soviet Union Made Unsuccessful Attempts to Collaborate During the Space Race

Could the moon landing have been an international program? Roger D. Launius President John F. Kennedy and Chairman Nikita Khrushchev during their meeting in Vienna, Austria. National Archives and ...
StrategyPage

Space: Ineffective Russian Space Program

May 25, 2025: Roscosmos, the post-Soviet Russian space program, has proved to be less effective than its Soviet predecessor. The primary problems are incompetence and corruption. One glaring example ...
CNN

A failed Soviet-era spacecraft likely crashed back to Earth overnight

Sign up for CNN’s Wonder Theory science newsletter. Explore the universe with news on fascinating discoveries, scientific advancements and more. A Soviet-era ...
Smithsonian Magazine

Soviet Cosmonauts Trained at Star City as They Raced to Beat America to the Moon. Now, a New TV Series Imagines What Happened Behind the Base’s Walls

Apple TV’s “Star City” takes place in a world where the space race never came to an end. A spinoff of “For All Mankind,” the show is told from the Soviet perspective Rhys Ifans (standing in second row ...
StrategyPage

Space: Ineffective Russian Space Program

The Russian space program is run by Roscosmos, a state-owned corporation that has a budget of nearly three billion dollars a year and provides employment for about 250,000 people, including the many ...